Bloomfield Robotics Earns Investments from Kubota, Oeneo
Pittsburgh-based Bloomfield Robotics, which develops artificial intelligence-driven plant imaging technology for use in specialty agriculture, has announced receiving investments from Kubota Corp. and Oeneo Group SA. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Kubota, which designs and manufactures agricultural tractors, said it is renewing its investment and strengthening its commitment to Bloomfield. The deeper relationship aims to ensure that each farm vehicle becomes a platform for continuous data collection to assess both the health and performance of each plant in the specialty crop sector.
Kubota said one of its global initiatives aims to develop solutions that enhance productivity and food safety. The investment reflects Kubota’s confidence in Bloomfield’s ability to provide plant-level insights to help growers make more informed management decisions, the company added.
“Through partnership between Kubota and Bloomfield, we believe that we can provide more precise and efficient farm operations and create new values for farmers by collaborating with some of both companies’ technology, products and services,” said Koji Hasegawa, general manager of Kubot’s Innovation Center Silicon Valley.
Oeneo said its investment is driven by how powerful Bloomfield’s technology is for the wine industry. Their investment provides Bloomfield with direct access to Oeneo’s 10,000 customers in the wine industry worldwide. Oeneo’s relationships with its customers aim to enhance Bloomfield’s ability to provide specific analysis for each wine region and grape variety.
“This partnership with Bloomfield is aligned with Oeneo’s development strategy to build a complete and innovative offer for winegrowers,” said Dominique Tourneix, CEO of the Oeneo Group. “It will allow us to accelerate our own initiatives, in particular in response to the impacts of climate change. In the vineyard, we want to offer our clients new indicators, enabling them to make the most relevant decisions possible, to secure the quality and quantity of the wine production.”
“Our partnerships with Kubota and Oeneo are examples of how we want to service the entire specialty crop supply chain by serving our primary customer: the grower,” said Mark DeSantis, CEO of Bloomfield Robotics. “We believe that by providing actionable, plant-level information to growers that can be used to make more informed management decisions, then we can create greater connectivity within the supply chain and deliver more value to each partner that is responsible for managing our food system.”
Bloomfield said additional investments were made by The Yield Lab Asia Pacific Fund, WGD Opportunity Fund, WGD Capital, Pasudeco & Co. Holdings, and M7 Ace NEO LLC. The company said it plans to use the new funding to grow its team, deploy the technology to more customers and continue to develop technology to serve the entire specialty crop industry.
For more details on the company, visit the Bloomfield Robotics website here.
